Some people write to get read, others write to get paid. Below are links to pretty much everything I've had published in the last couple of years - as well as relics from my blogging days. The observant among you may note an inverse correlation between paid and unpaid work over time.
The Herald on Sunday, 2009-
Booze Test Dummies Insight lead on what happens when four comedians get pissed and drive. September 20, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
Let Public Pick Judges, says Trust News. Garth McVicar proposes a policy that the Attorney-General labels "unthinkable nonsense". September 20, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
Laws Lets Loose in Email Exchange News. A hot-temped email exchange with Michael Laws goes viral. September 20, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
Chic Bloom Fit for Opera Photo recall of cutting-edge fashion, circa 1973. September 20, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
Sour Taste for Family Driven out of Dairying Insight feature on why the Crafar family - New Zealand's biggest privte dairy farmers - are really quitting the game. September 13, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
Horror House Victims Buried News. Two women murdered and buried beneath a Christchurch house are remembered. September 13, 2009, Herald on Sunday. (Co-credit with Abby Gillies.)
Future MP Cops an Earful Photo recall. It was the photo that made veteran activist Sue Bradford world-famous - and not just in New Zealand. September 13, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
100 per cent Pure Carnage Insight feature onwhy it's a mixed blessing that backpackers are saving our tourism bacon. September 6, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
MPs Caught Behind Bars Photo recall When four Labour MPs agreed to be shot in prison. September 6, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
Pitbull Pack on the Prowl News. Worried residents of an isolated community are carrying rifles to hunt and kill a marauding pack of wild pitbulls. September 6, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
A Good Keen Pension Plan Insight lead feature on the troubled legacy of Barry Crump. August 30, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
Young Live Drown in a Culture of Binge Insight feature on the cost of youth drinking and possible solutions. August 30, 2009, Herald on Sunday. (Co-credit with Alistair Gray.)
Crump Movie Set to Go News. Wild Pork and Watercress to be adapted by Taika Waititi. August 30, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
Firefighters Pay Row Heats Up News. Cameron Grylls, first responder to the Tamahere fire, moonlights as a nurse because he says firefighter pay is insufficient. August 30, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
Hot Start to Beginning of the Enz Photo recall of when Split Enz lost their practice hall. August 30, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
Model Behaviour Insight lead feature on the mixed blessings of high-fashion caltwalk modelling. August 23, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
Testing Time for Models News. Hundreds of next top model hopefuls have their own elimation round at the annual Fashion Week casting call. August 23, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
US Funding For 'No' Vote News. A group behind the "Vote No" bloc in the smacking referendum received around $1m over six years from a conservative American religious group. August 23, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
Lines Etched in a Time Gone By Photo recall of pipe-smoking Tainui elder Nga Kahikatea,. August 23, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
A Right Royal Shame Insight lead feature on what led to the sinking of the Princess Ashika. August 16, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
Tongan King's Critics Hit Out News. Reaction in Tonga to the King's appearance at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. August 16, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
The Prettiest Co-Pilot in the Universe Photo recall of Lorraine Downe's triumphant 1981 return to New Zealand. August 16, 2009, Herald on Sunday.
Freelancing '09
The Death of Bunny Munro Book review of Nick Cave's murky parable about lust. August 23, 2009, Canvas.
Reality Bites From newspaper crime reporter to author and TV writer, David Simon has produced a compelling cache of true and fiction stories, including cult phenomenon The Wire. Despite the success on the small screen, part of Simon still thinks he's a newspaper man. August 15, 2009, New Zealand Listener.
The Corner Book review of David Simon and Ed Burns' year occupying a Baltimore street's drug market. August 1, 2009, Canvas.
A Brief History of the Future Book review of Jacques Attali attempt to predict the next century. June 18, 2009, Canvas.
Forever Strong Film review of abysmal rugby-as-high-school-inspiration movie. June 1, 2009. Flicks.co.nz.
The Escapist Film review of a kinetic prison-escape that uses character actors rather than MTV mannequins. May 28, 2009. Flicks.co.nz.
The Reader Film review of Kate Winslet's tour de force in a Holocaust-chick flick. April 16, 2009. Flicks.co.nz.
Things I've Been Silent About Book review of Azar Nafisi's memoir about growing up in Iran. March 28, 2009, Canvas.
The Honorary Console They can get you fit, help you lose weight, make you reach and teach you problem-solving skills. So why is everyone down on video games? March 15, 2009, Sunday [not online].
All in the Mind Book review of Alastair Cambell's novel about depressives. February 28, 2009, Canvas.
Field Punishment No.1 Book review of David Grant's analytic biography of WW1 conscientious objectors Mark Briggs and Archibald Baxter. February 7, 2009, Canvas.
Grave Concerns He deals daily with the hard reality of death, but much of Inga Tuigamala's life has been about seeing dreams come true. February 1, 2009, Sunday [not online].
The Listener Years 2004-8 Alas poor magazine of record, I knew you well.
TheirSpace Letting students use their own technology in the classroom can bring big benefits – the hard part can be in overcoming the resistance to change. February 7, 2009, New Zealand Listener.
On the smell of an oily rag With the next EnergyWise rally about to take place, here are the tricks for getting from A to B using as little fuel as possible. November 22, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Little ripper Is pirating designer fashion really all that bad? November 1, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Who needs to know? Cover Story Is learning under threat from the morass of information masquerading as fact. October 25, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Theory of creativity Well-respected astrophysicist and now successful novelist, Alan Lightman is helping bridge the chasm between science and the public. October 18, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Escape from 'Alcatraz' What really happened to boys sent to a boot camp on a remote island? September 20, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Eye on Iran Big-issue politics may be off the menu, but not national and personal identity in a photography exhibition touring the country. September 13, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Superstitious minds Kiwi Olympians are considered lucky to have ended up in tower block 8 in the village. Do superstitions still count? August 2, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Geoff Bryan Upfront interview with long-time TVNZ sports presenter. August 2, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Violent femmes Increasing numbers of New Zealand women are turning to violent crime – and doing the time. July 26, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Lenny Henry Upfront interview with British comedian and supergroup frontman. July 19, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Pera Bagust Upfront interview with host of What's Really in Our Food? June 21, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Talk this way Should working journalists be taking payment to act as media trainers?. June 14, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
The Death of Funerals New Zealanders are personalising death, embracing celebrants and shedding the casket-and-burial rituals of our forebears. May 24, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Craig Strathern Upfront interview with Red Cross worker in Yangon, Burma. May 24, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Alan Barber Upfront interview with Auckland neurologist. March 22, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
TV Films The great and grotesque movies on the television. March 1, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Margaret Boden Upfront interview with cognitive scientist and academic Chomsky-foil. March 1, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
TV Films The best flicks on the box this week. February 23, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
States of Play Lecturer and self-professed "political junkie" Jon Johansson gives his views on the race to the White House. February 16, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
The Last Cyclo in Saigon A proposal to tame Ho Chi Minh City’s unruly traffic has proved highly contentious. February 9, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Chris Hocquard Upfront interview with entertainment lawyer. February 9, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
TV Films The best films of the week on television. February 9, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Texan Noir Film Review of the Coen brother's No Country for Old Men. February 2, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
The 2008 How To Guide Cover Story on how to achieve everything from surfing the internet to becoming a cult American television fixture. Includes a comprehensive list of useful sites on the world wide web. January 12, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
Nicola Legat Upfront interview with noted New Zealand publisher and former magazine editor. January 12, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
The man who went to see Tolstoy The extraordinary story of the Auckland minister’s son who became the world’s most prolific linguist – and an eyewitness of the Russian Revolution. January 5, 2008, New Zealand Listener.
TV Films The best of the week's films on the television. December 29, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Shane Bond Upfront interview with the consistently brilliant and consistently injured Black Cap fast-bowler. December 15, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
TV films Bite-sized reviews of the flicks on the box. December 8, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Moana Jackson Upfront interview with lawyer, activist and spokesperson for the legal team defending the “Urewera 16”. November 24, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
TV films The best of the week on the box. November 16, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
O, Zimbabwe The end is coming for Robert Mugabe. November 3, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Perfectly Frank Veteran actor Frank Whitten has found fame and Outrageous Fortune. October 27, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Adrian Orr Upfront interview with head of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. October 27, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Ant Timpson Upfront interview with film nut and executive producer of The Devil Dared Me To. October 13, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Eureka! Cover Story The past century has seen massive increases in IQ test scores. Professor James Flynn, discoverer of this “Flynn effect”, has endeavoured to solve the puzzle of why we’re getting smarter. Now he offers a new picture of human intelligence that is both surprising and illuminating. October 6, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Shock Tactics Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman’s “catastrophic” doctrines have harmed millions, says Canadian activist Naomi Klein in her new book The Shock Doctrine: Disaster Capitalism. September 29, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Frans Johansson Upfront interview with author of The Medici Effect. September 22, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Desperate in Darfur Civil war is killing western Sudan. Can’t we play more than a token role? September 15, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
What happens when the oil stops coming? Cover Story Global demand for oil is expected to outstrip supply within five years. And that is going to hit us all where we live – literally. September 8, 2007, New Zealand Listener. (Co-credit with Denis Welch.)
Anton Oliver Upfront interview with All Black. September 8, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
A Tsar is born How a boy from Taranaki found Russian gold. August 11, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Life with Brian A talking baby and a martini-drinking mutt? It can only be the occasionally inspired Family Guy. July 28, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Dyer predictions The last western soldier will leave Iraq late next year, predicts Gwynne Dyer, leaving behind carnage, division and dislocation. July 14, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
A good return Government agencies investing more than $27 billion of public money are required to "avoid prejudice to New Zealand's reputation as a responsible member of the world community". How are they doing? June 30, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Mob rules Undercover as Donnie Brasco, FBI agent Joe Pistone was willing to go along with murder to crack the Mafia. June 23, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Great balls of fur When two cats go to war, where's the United Nations? June 23, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Shane Cameron Upfront interview with heavyweight boxer. June 23, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Mild colonial boy Drug abuse, intrigue, gossip and infidelity: actor and diarist Richard E Grant thinks that 1960s Swaziland was the ideal warm-up for Hollywood. May 26, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Crash course Teenagers exposed to horrific tragedies like the Christchurch hit-and-run may not react as adults do. An American trauma expert shares his insights into their feelings. May 26, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Outrageous Fortune Given that many of us fudge our resumes to get ahead, is CV cheating really so risky? May 12, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Dai Henwood Upfront interview with comedian. May 5 2007, New Zealand Listener.
The Price of Prodigy Cover Story Being labeled "gifted" child is a mixed blessing and the transition to adulthood can be rocky. April 21, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Ross Taylor Upfront interview with Black Cap batsman. March 17, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
High Stakes There's more then one way for a country to handle the ethical investment of taxpayer's funds. March 10, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Domestic Drama Jennifer Ward-Lealand and Michael Hurst - theatre's First Couple. March 3, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Fright or Fright? Calls to curb international travel could have dire consequences for our second-largest foreign-exchange earner. March 3, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Mark Jennings Upfront interview with TV3's news supremo. February 24, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Dirty Dollars The tax money collected for your retirement is being used by fund managers, acting on behalf of the government, to profit from the war in Iraq, nuclear-weapon production and the building of the Guantanamo Bay prison. February 17, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
What's up, Doc? TV Review: Dr Gregory House kicks the drugs and takes up running? Pull the other one. February 10, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
Coming to the party Will criminalising party pills only push people into harder drugs like P? February 3, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
No sharks, no chefs From Pop Mechanix to the Documentary Channel, Richard Driver’s there with bells on. January 27, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
The eye on the storm Geoff Mackley chases nature’s worst across the globe to get his remarkable footage. January 20, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
TV films Bite-sized reviews of flicks on the box. January 20, 2007, New Zealand Listener
Up with the new As newspapers cut back and all media on the internet look the same, technology races on. January 13, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
The whole world watches TV Review Visit YouTube and discover instant classics in the vast new world of online video. January 13, 2007, New Zealand Listener.
The You Can Do Guide Cover Story Never been sure of the best way to cook a steak? Or how to ask for a date? Or even do absolutely nothing? Relax, we’ve got it covered. We’ve asked more than 30 experts, amateur and professional, to come up with their best advice on how to do ... just about anything if you put your mind to it. January 6, 2007, New Zealand Listener. (Co-credit with Amanda Spratt.)
TV films The flicks on the box. December 30, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
TV films More flicks on the box. December 23, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Make me a kidney To better understand kidneys, a transplant recipient is building one on his computer. December 16, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Seeds of unease Invasion of privacy or public interest? Nicky Hager has no doubts. December 16, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Driven to distraction Hot weather can bring out the worst in drivers. So, if you want to avoid road-rage incidents these holidays, let common sense prevail. December 16, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
The life changers Mentoring programmes aim to catch young people before they go completely off the rails. November 18, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Wallace Chapman Upfront interview with broadcaster and one-time medical media martyr. November 18, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Marching up hamburger hill The American fast food industry now has global reach, but is also under attack as an evil empire. October 28, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
State of Play Are video games really so addictive that they are turning kids, especially boys, into brain-dead bores by playing with their minds – or do they, as researchers suggest, have a positive effect? October 21, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
How to save the world Celebrated scientist and bestselling author Jared Diamond turns his attention to the collapse of civilisation. October 21, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Howard's end-game Book Review of Andrew McGahan's political satire Underground. October 14, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Brain food Cover Story It’s been shown that, for adults, the right foods can ensure that our brains perform at peak efficiency; for children, diet can have lifelong effects. October 7, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
That clinched it Ian Wishart explains why he saw fit to publish those pictures of the Prime Minister's husband. September 30, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Ant Sang Upfront interview with cartoonist and bro'Town designer Ant Sang. September 23, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Lights, camera, reaction Shortland Street’s production company goes green. September 16, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Terence White Upfront interview with kiwi war correspondent. September 9, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Eyes off the bomb September 11 may have made it easier for terrorists to go nuclear. September 9, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Speak Mandarin? A Chinese website offers an insight into the lives of international students. September 2, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Bidding war A teenage entrepreneur has dreamt up an online tool that will give Trade Me bidders the edge – if Trade Me will let him. August 19, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Hope like hell Restoring peace between Israel and Lebanon is not impossible. Just insanely difficult. August 12, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Capping it off Column For a would-be university graduate, a hospital gown is a poor substitute for the real thing. July 15, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
All class Film Review: The Aristocrats. May 20, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Bearing witness A Central Asian journalist exiled in New York sheds light on a little-publicised massacre in Uzbekistan. May 13, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
On the outer Why Americans are slipping in the worldwide popularity polls. May 6, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Courage under fire Being accepted for training at the elite US military academy of West Point means a cheap university education for teenagers from poor families. It also means a likely posting to fight in Iraq – and the chance of being killed. April 8, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Lies, damn lies & dodgy dealings The US journalist who lifted the lid on Enron is modest - and not only over the success of the Oscar-nominated documentary based on her book, The Smartest Guys in the Room, now screening in New Zealand. March 4, 2006, New Zealand Listener.
Veteran of the Middle East Dinner with Robert Fisk. December 10, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Pickup tricks Don Juan in New York. October 29, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Stings like a slug Chrisopher Hitchens meets his match. October 1, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
It's vital we open secrets to keep everyone honest Op-ed on the use of injuctions by Universities to suppress student press. October 6, 2005, New Zealand Herald.
First I take Manhattan Column: Steel-capped combat boots are not practical in a New York heatwave. September 24, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Black gold For miners, the Raglan seafloor is a new frontier, but locals are worried that there are no regulations in place to mitigate environmental impacts. September 10, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Drug money Are celebrities' coke habits funding al-Qaeda or organised crime? August 6, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Hunt the terrorist In the cat-and-mouse game of counter-terrorism, progress is being made. July 23, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
League of gentlemen Exiled Zimbabwean cricketer Henry Olonga appeals to the Black Caps and the International Cricket Council. July 16, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Off the sidelines Never mind the Lions, who's winning the clash of the rugby commentators? July 2, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Bomber Upfront interview with Martyn Bradbury June 25, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Shore thing Musicians mark the anniversary of the 1985 sinking of Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour by re-recording a Kiwi classic. June 25, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Born bad? Cover Story Are the most hated criminals simply evil or can they be rehabilitated? May 21, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Te Radar Upfront interview with comedian. Piss taken. May 14, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Take it in TV Review The diary of a late-night channel-surfing insomniac. May 7, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Zimbabwe boycott? Cancellation of the cricket tour would be seen as a real slap in the face for President Mugabe. April 30, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Democracy run out Cricket boss Martin Snedden makes a call on the Black Caps' tour to Zimbabwe. April 16, 2005 New Zealand Listener.
Levitating the Pentagon Book Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats, by Jon Ronson. April 2, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Dr Claudia Orange Upfront interview with Treaty expert and Te Papa's history director. March 12, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
It's a family affair Nepotism has far more practitioners than defenders. March 5, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Preschool excellence Sidebar on the cutting edge of early childhood education. February 19, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Polls apart State-of-the-nation speeches by the Green and Act leaders neatly illustrated the philosophical chasm between the two minority parties. January 29, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
A hitch in time Column on the joys of sticking ones thumb in it. January 29, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
The golden generation Cover Story: With opportunities aplenty, today's bright young things expect to be rewarded, and they want it now. January 22, 2005, New Zealand Listener. (Co-credit with Nick Smith)
Dizzy heights "Popera" poppet Yulia Townsend's career is taking off so fast that she hasn't had a chance to make any resolutions. January 18, 2005, New Zealand Listener.
Picking porkies Ah, Christmas. Everyone loves their gifts, welcomes relatives with warm, open arms, and wishes goodwill to all humankind. Can you spot the lies? December 18, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
The power list The 50 most powerful people in New Zealand revealed. December 11, 2004, New Zealand Listener. (Co-credit with Tim Watkin and Nick Smith)
Hitting home Cover Story on the likely effects of climate change on New Zealand for the next generation. December 4, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
Chris Butcher Upfront interview with Halo 2 lead engineer and Kurow wizz-kid. December 4, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
Hello trees, hello mountains Profile of Monty Python funnyman Michael Palin. November 27, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
Pieces of green Book Review and interview with Greenpeace co-founder Rex Weyler on his book An Insider's Account. November 20, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
Kings of the hill Mavericks in newsrooms, from Hiroshima to Auckland, break stories and budgets. Interview with John Pilger about his book, Tell Me No Lies, and investigative journalism in New Zealand. November 20, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
Dodging Bush Column on granting Americans political asylum so that they can escape theirs. November 20, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
Nothing in the tank As oil prices climb, New Zealand discovers scandalously low reserves. October 30, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
Clio Cresswell Upfront interview with Australian professor on her book Mathematics and Sex. October 9, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
The Simpsons of the south pacific The hopes for and prospects of upcoming Pacific animated sitcom bro'Town. September 25, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
Neither war nor peace After the Beslan massacre, what are the chances for Chechen independence? September 18, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
Back to Room 101 Book Review and interview with Stasiland author Anna Funder. September 18, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
Foot in the door A Hollywood career beckons James Napier Robertson. September 18, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
GE free or busted Despite scant media attention, eco-activists have been conducting semi-legal campaigns up and down the country. September 4, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
Sir Robert Jones In My Experience interview with property magnate and humanities patron. August 28, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
Mass market penetration The fifth annual Erotica Adult Lifestyles Expo represents the "tasteful" side of what is a growing domestic industry. August 21, 2004, New Zealand Listener. (Co-credit with Patrick Crewdson)
The spying dame Former MI5 head Stella Rimington was the model for Judi Dench's "M" – she's a shaker not a stirrer, which is why her former employers okayed her new foray into terrorism fiction with At Risk. July 31, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
Safe as houses Cover Story: Our burglary rate is declining, so should you still be worried? July 24, 2004, New Zealand Listener. (Co-credit with Mark Revington)
Islands of Silence Review of Martin Booth's new novel. July 21, 2004, Canvas: New Zealand Herald.
Please don't mess with this sign The unlikely symbiosis between advertisers and those who hijack their campaigns. July 17, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
All about oil Interview with host of upcoming BBC documentary Meet the Stans. July 17, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
The Maxim gun Will a trend towards saturating publications with emails subvert the letter-writing process? June 26, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
The Sprout-like Freelance Years 2002-4 (complete - bar several pieces lost in stuff)
Greg Proops Upfront interview with Whose Line is it Anyway? regular. April 24, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
When the human zoo outgrows new cages The high price of New Zealand's overcrowded prisons. April 17, 2004, Weekend Review: New Zealand Herald.
Guerrillas in our midst "You plant them, we'll pull them," they say of GE crops. But does that make them terrorists who should face long jail sentences? February 14, 2004, New Zealand Listener.
GM troops set for action Where the GE debate will go after the moratorium has been lifted. January 18, 2004, Weekend Review: New Zealand Herald.
John Ralston Saul Upfront profile on Canadian philosopher and author about French water, nuclear power and his book On Equilibrium. June 22, 2002, New Zealand Listener.
Blogs and the student press (selected)
Shut up and listen, an old man is talking Guest editorial on the merits of 1998 and cheaper beer. July 10, 2006, Salient.
Hey brother, can you spare $25,000? A bitter farewell to the blogging, or; why all blogs are shit. April 27, 2005, Fightingtalk.
Number of the Beasts, Blackshirts, fighting and the Big Day Out. March 15, 2005, Fightingtalk.
Clowns and Mirrors, On introspection and small beginnings, PLUS an editorial on being a political sapper. December 13, 2004, Fightingtalk.
I Palin Comparison Transcript of interview with Michael Palin. November 27, 2004, Fightingtalk.
Pilger's Progress Transcript of interview with John Pilger. November 15, 2004, Fightingtalk.
Trash Talkin' Part two of a cunning and soberly concocted rabid-blog-shitfight. October 10, 2004, Fightingtalk.
WANTED: Journalistic protégé to acerbic and elegant New Conservatives spokesman An open letter in reply to media commentator David Cohen. October 3, 2004, Fightingtalk.
If you stand outside and it rains... Testy correspondence and the perils of blogging. September 14, 2004, Fightingtalk.
Young Junkies Rejoice A look at shaken-up student media facing competition from outside. August 10, 2004, Fightingtalk.
The Maori Queen in White Pants A television review: Eating Media Lunch. June 2, 2004, Fightingtalk.
Compromising Values Column on Mediawatch item on the state of student media. May 17, 2004, Fightingtalk, Salient and Critic.
Cracks in the Media Windowpane, Review of the film Shattered Glass. May 2, 2004, Fightingtalk.
Random Chunks from the Bottom of the Barrel Musings on Studs Terkel, death and Greg Proops. April 20, 2004, Fightingtalk.
Big Red is Dead Editorial-obituary for a big cow. April 16, 2004, Salient.
Man of Letters Who is Stephen D Taylor, and why do you have the feeling you know him? April 16, 2004, Fightingtalk.
The dangerous dogs of war, in the wild, wild West Iraq PMCs and the rise of mercenaries. April 13, 2004, Fightingtalk.
Long Live the King Last broadcast interview with historian and author Michael King. April 1, 2004, Fightingtalk, Scoop, and Public Address. (Co-credit with Simon Pound)
Damned Dams and Bloodsports The implications for environmentalism on campaigns that are too successful. March 31, 2004, Fightingtalk.
Welcome to the Human Zoo, Penal policy and a visit to Pare D block. March 28, 2004, Fightingtalk.
Standing Tall on the Low Road, Interview with Whale Rider author Witi Ihimaera on the eve of the Oscars. March 1, 2004, Public Address.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Matt RW2 - Playboy
It is a covert rite of adolescent passage, and also the life’s work of an unapologetic old horn dog. It can be read for literate articles, or gawked at for pixel-perfect crotch shots. Tom Wolfe calls it one of those "one-handed magazines", and yet it has also engaged both sides of the brain for over six decades. It is Playboy.
In December 1953 Hugh Hefner printed 60,000 black and white copies of a magazine that was nearly published under the title Stag. This first issue of Playboy was financed with a loan from Hefner’s mother, a Methodist nurse who wanted her son to be a missionary, and sold-out due to snaps of Marilyn Monroe with nothing on but the radio. That issue now sells on eBay for $7,000 (copies of the January 1955 edition with sexpot Bettie Page as centerfold top the rankings at $17,000).
While it began small and focused on nudie pictures, by November 1972 Playboy was established as a popular literary heavyweight. It had more than 7 million paid subscribers, and published top-rank writers such as Norman Mailer, Jack Kerouac and John Updike.
In 1962 Miles Davis starred in the first of the now-famous “Playboy Interview” series, a regular, in-depth Q&A. The subject choices and timing, while tilting towards Hollywood in recent years, have generally been prescient. Interviews have included Jimmy Hoffa (1963), Jean-Paul Satre (1965), Germaine Greer (1972) and Lech Walsea (1982). Jon Stewart was featured in March 2000, and Alex Hayley got his biography Autobiography of Malcolm X off the ground with a 1963 interview.
It is a common quip that husbands only read Playboy “for the articles.” While this may hold true for the 45 percent of readers who are over 35, the 18 to 35 year-olds are probably reading it for the pictures. Of girls. With big breasts. In the nude. Hefner defends his girly pictures as “tasteful” compared to competitors such as Penthouse who depict explicit sex. Airbrushing women in the pursuit of perfection is also part of the Playboy package, which explains the 1990 case of Pamela Anderson’s disappearing labia.
While Playboy’s pictures may today appear tame, the first issues were unequivocally radical as no one had dared challenge postal obscenity laws before. Hefner is quick to share credit with Alfred C. Kinsey for the sexual revolution. For this social project Kinsey gave his brains, while Hefner brought the porn.
Playboy is inseparable from its owner and publisher, who lives the lifestyle his magazine espouses. Hef, as he is known, is today 78 years-old and lives in a Los Angeles mansion-cum-harem enjoying polygamous relationships with an endless rotation of young blondes. He told Esquire that, "I wake up every day and go to bed every night knowing I’m the luckiest guy on the fucking planet."
And when he wakes he drinks Diet Pepsi for breakfast, prefers working from bed, and wears silk pajamas when he chooses to eventually rise. While no longer running the day-to-day minutiae of Playboy, he retains the title of editor-in-chief and writes cartoon captions and edits the regular Party Jokes page.
The subjects of the magazine’s advertisements and lifestyle features can kindly be called the “finer things” in a man’s life. There’s booze (rum, single-malt scotch, tequila, vodka and beer), cigarettes and cigars, chic male underwear, trucks and motorbikes, and a whole host of in-house merchandise (clothing, books, and even a videogame: Playboy - The Mansion).
Today the magazine is hemmed in by the bawdy and adolescent lad-mags such as Maxim and Stuff on one side, and on the other by XXX pornography on the internet (although Playboy was, in 1994, the first national magazine with a website). Paid circulation has been in steady decline, and today is around 3 million. The editorial director has been changed three times in five years, at the behest of Hef, who maintains ultimate control.
Because of this long oversight by one man, the magazine hasn’t dramatically changed over the past 52 years. Today it reads not as radical, but as a monument to what radical once was. Like the Harley-Davidson featured in its advertisements, Playboy has become an American classic.
In December 1953 Hugh Hefner printed 60,000 black and white copies of a magazine that was nearly published under the title Stag. This first issue of Playboy was financed with a loan from Hefner’s mother, a Methodist nurse who wanted her son to be a missionary, and sold-out due to snaps of Marilyn Monroe with nothing on but the radio. That issue now sells on eBay for $7,000 (copies of the January 1955 edition with sexpot Bettie Page as centerfold top the rankings at $17,000).
While it began small and focused on nudie pictures, by November 1972 Playboy was established as a popular literary heavyweight. It had more than 7 million paid subscribers, and published top-rank writers such as Norman Mailer, Jack Kerouac and John Updike.
In 1962 Miles Davis starred in the first of the now-famous “Playboy Interview” series, a regular, in-depth Q&A. The subject choices and timing, while tilting towards Hollywood in recent years, have generally been prescient. Interviews have included Jimmy Hoffa (1963), Jean-Paul Satre (1965), Germaine Greer (1972) and Lech Walsea (1982). Jon Stewart was featured in March 2000, and Alex Hayley got his biography Autobiography of Malcolm X off the ground with a 1963 interview.
It is a common quip that husbands only read Playboy “for the articles.” While this may hold true for the 45 percent of readers who are over 35, the 18 to 35 year-olds are probably reading it for the pictures. Of girls. With big breasts. In the nude. Hefner defends his girly pictures as “tasteful” compared to competitors such as Penthouse who depict explicit sex. Airbrushing women in the pursuit of perfection is also part of the Playboy package, which explains the 1990 case of Pamela Anderson’s disappearing labia.
While Playboy’s pictures may today appear tame, the first issues were unequivocally radical as no one had dared challenge postal obscenity laws before. Hefner is quick to share credit with Alfred C. Kinsey for the sexual revolution. For this social project Kinsey gave his brains, while Hefner brought the porn.
Playboy is inseparable from its owner and publisher, who lives the lifestyle his magazine espouses. Hef, as he is known, is today 78 years-old and lives in a Los Angeles mansion-cum-harem enjoying polygamous relationships with an endless rotation of young blondes. He told Esquire that, "I wake up every day and go to bed every night knowing I’m the luckiest guy on the fucking planet."
And when he wakes he drinks Diet Pepsi for breakfast, prefers working from bed, and wears silk pajamas when he chooses to eventually rise. While no longer running the day-to-day minutiae of Playboy, he retains the title of editor-in-chief and writes cartoon captions and edits the regular Party Jokes page.
The subjects of the magazine’s advertisements and lifestyle features can kindly be called the “finer things” in a man’s life. There’s booze (rum, single-malt scotch, tequila, vodka and beer), cigarettes and cigars, chic male underwear, trucks and motorbikes, and a whole host of in-house merchandise (clothing, books, and even a videogame: Playboy - The Mansion).
Today the magazine is hemmed in by the bawdy and adolescent lad-mags such as Maxim and Stuff on one side, and on the other by XXX pornography on the internet (although Playboy was, in 1994, the first national magazine with a website). Paid circulation has been in steady decline, and today is around 3 million. The editorial director has been changed three times in five years, at the behest of Hef, who maintains ultimate control.
Because of this long oversight by one man, the magazine hasn’t dramatically changed over the past 52 years. Today it reads not as radical, but as a monument to what radical once was. Like the Harley-Davidson featured in its advertisements, Playboy has become an American classic.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
What they didn't want you to read
Here's what's been causing all the fuss. Kind of an anticlimax, really:
THE STORY THEY DIDN'T WANT YOU TO READ
5-10% FEE RISE!
SH*TF*CK!
by Salient staff reporters
Leaked documents reveal that Vic students are in for a massive increase in fees in 2006, with the University considering 5-10% across-the-board fee rises.
At the time of writing, the University has threatened legal action to stop Salient from publishing this information. (So if you're reading this - yay!)
According to the leaked documents, Vice-Chancellor Pat Walsh presented four options for fee increases in 2006 (for undergraduate and Honours courses):
1. 5% increase across-the-board
2. 10% increase for Humanities and Education; 5% increase for everyone else
3. 10% increase for Law, Humanities and Education; 5% increase for everyone else
4. 10% increase across-the-board
Under all four options, all postgraduate fees will increase by $500 per Equivalent Full-Time Student (EFTS).
In the documents, Vice-Chancellor Pat Walsh justified the increase by saying that the "real levels of government funding continue to decline", and that the University's other major revenue source, student fees, is also expected to be reduced.
In particular, international EFTS has dropped by 10% in 2005, costing Vic an estimated $2m per year. Although the general decline in the number of international students has not hit Vic as hard as some of the other universities, the effect of the decline is expected to compound over the next few years as the lower number of students progress through to second- and third-year, etc.
International student fees generated $37m in revenue for Vic in 2005.
Vic is currently projected to run a $7.8m surplus in 2005, or 3.5% of its total revenue - above the Tertiary Advisory Monitoring Unit's guideline that it is prudent to run a surplus of 3%.
Despite the current surplus, the document says that unavoidable IT and library costs may add up to as much as $2.4m, with staff pay rise and promotion increases adding up to an extra $6.7m. Meanwhile, revenue is only projected to increase by $4.4m. The document concludes that continuing to achieve the necessary 3% surplus without "substantial redundancies" would be a "testing challenge".
There are also concerns that the level of fees is connected to the prestige of the university. One of the Deans says that the "level of fees implies that VUW offers a lower quality product in comparison with other universities. The fee level is not commensurate with the quality of the [Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences] teaching and research programmes."
Though any fee increases above the 5% limit imposed by the Fee Maxima scheme requires special exemption from the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), a 10% increase would still leave Vic's fees on the low-end for Humanities, mid-range in Law, Science and Architecture & Design, but on the high-end for Commerce when compared with other universities in New Zealand.
A 10% increase will cost full-time undergraduate and Honours students $300-400 per year, and full-time postgraduate students $500 per year.
VUWSA President Jeremy Greenbrook has condemned the proposals, calling it "unjustified and plain greedy". He says the University has been increasing its surpluses over the past few years and "always" underestimates the student and revenue figures.
Vice-Chancellor Pat Walsh has refused to comment on the proposals contained in the documents, saying that the documents were "provided in the public excluded business of the Finance Committee, and which the full Council has not yet seen ... casual acceptance that confidentiality can be routinely breached would make effective governance and management of the University impossible. It is utterly inconsistent with the statutory responsibilities of any member of Council, let alone my responsibilities as Vice-Chancellor."
"Salient has no right to publish information that it is not entitled to have in its possession," says Walsh, "and the University will take appropriate action to protect the integrity of its governance processes."
Vic's move follows Massey University's recent decision to ask TEC for an exemption to raise fees by 10%. Such an exemption is only given under "exceptional" circumstances. The education provider has to prove that the cost of the course is not covered by the income generated, the course could not be cross-subsidised from an overall surplus and that raising fees would impact on the ability of the university to meet the government's tertiary education strategy.
TEC Policy Manager James Turner says the university would have to be in "financial shit, basically" to have an exemption granted. That Vic already had low fees was irrelevant, and the TEC board would closely analyse the increasing costs. There was also a requirement for students to be consulted about any fee increases and students' associations could make submissions to the TEC, he says.
THE STORY THEY DIDN'T WANT YOU TO READ
5-10% FEE RISE!
SH*TF*CK!
by Salient staff reporters
Leaked documents reveal that Vic students are in for a massive increase in fees in 2006, with the University considering 5-10% across-the-board fee rises.
At the time of writing, the University has threatened legal action to stop Salient from publishing this information. (So if you're reading this - yay!)
According to the leaked documents, Vice-Chancellor Pat Walsh presented four options for fee increases in 2006 (for undergraduate and Honours courses):
1. 5% increase across-the-board
2. 10% increase for Humanities and Education; 5% increase for everyone else
3. 10% increase for Law, Humanities and Education; 5% increase for everyone else
4. 10% increase across-the-board
Under all four options, all postgraduate fees will increase by $500 per Equivalent Full-Time Student (EFTS).
In the documents, Vice-Chancellor Pat Walsh justified the increase by saying that the "real levels of government funding continue to decline", and that the University's other major revenue source, student fees, is also expected to be reduced.
In particular, international EFTS has dropped by 10% in 2005, costing Vic an estimated $2m per year. Although the general decline in the number of international students has not hit Vic as hard as some of the other universities, the effect of the decline is expected to compound over the next few years as the lower number of students progress through to second- and third-year, etc.
International student fees generated $37m in revenue for Vic in 2005.
Vic is currently projected to run a $7.8m surplus in 2005, or 3.5% of its total revenue - above the Tertiary Advisory Monitoring Unit's guideline that it is prudent to run a surplus of 3%.
Despite the current surplus, the document says that unavoidable IT and library costs may add up to as much as $2.4m, with staff pay rise and promotion increases adding up to an extra $6.7m. Meanwhile, revenue is only projected to increase by $4.4m. The document concludes that continuing to achieve the necessary 3% surplus without "substantial redundancies" would be a "testing challenge".
There are also concerns that the level of fees is connected to the prestige of the university. One of the Deans says that the "level of fees implies that VUW offers a lower quality product in comparison with other universities. The fee level is not commensurate with the quality of the [Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences] teaching and research programmes."
Though any fee increases above the 5% limit imposed by the Fee Maxima scheme requires special exemption from the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), a 10% increase would still leave Vic's fees on the low-end for Humanities, mid-range in Law, Science and Architecture & Design, but on the high-end for Commerce when compared with other universities in New Zealand.
A 10% increase will cost full-time undergraduate and Honours students $300-400 per year, and full-time postgraduate students $500 per year.
VUWSA President Jeremy Greenbrook has condemned the proposals, calling it "unjustified and plain greedy". He says the University has been increasing its surpluses over the past few years and "always" underestimates the student and revenue figures.
Vice-Chancellor Pat Walsh has refused to comment on the proposals contained in the documents, saying that the documents were "provided in the public excluded business of the Finance Committee, and which the full Council has not yet seen ... casual acceptance that confidentiality can be routinely breached would make effective governance and management of the University impossible. It is utterly inconsistent with the statutory responsibilities of any member of Council, let alone my responsibilities as Vice-Chancellor."
"Salient has no right to publish information that it is not entitled to have in its possession," says Walsh, "and the University will take appropriate action to protect the integrity of its governance processes."
Vic's move follows Massey University's recent decision to ask TEC for an exemption to raise fees by 10%. Such an exemption is only given under "exceptional" circumstances. The education provider has to prove that the cost of the course is not covered by the income generated, the course could not be cross-subsidised from an overall surplus and that raising fees would impact on the ability of the university to meet the government's tertiary education strategy.
TEC Policy Manager James Turner says the university would have to be in "financial shit, basically" to have an exemption granted. That Vic already had low fees was irrelevant, and the TEC board would closely analyse the increasing costs. There was also a requirement for students to be consulted about any fee increases and students' associations could make submissions to the TEC, he says.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Salient Victorious?
I hear good news might be on the way. A settlement has been reached and Salient is due for unadulterated release.
Sounds like a TKO for the little guys...
...But there still seems to be some shenanigans going on. The media arrived to film the glorious emancipation, but University authorities had mysteriously vanished and turned their phones off. It seems no one remaining at the university knows where the seized magazines are.
Victoria looks to be delaying the inevitable. Terri Schiavo died with more dignity. (Note, this comparison originally read more lyrically, and less correctly: "Terra Schwab died with more dignity." Ahem.)
UPDATE: And they're in. Salient delivered to overjoyed staff at 17:17, Wellington time.
And here's the statement issued in relation to the settlement:
Joint Statement by Vice-Chancellor and VOWS/Salient
Professor Pat Walsh, Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington ("prop. Walsh"), The Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association("VOWS") and the editorial staff of Salient newspaper("Salient") are pleased to record that the issues between them which led the Vice-Chancellor to obtain an injunction in relation to the publication of certain confidential information have now been resolved.
The parties have agreed that:
The confidential documents leaked to VOWS and Salient will forthwith be returned by VOWS/Salient to prof. Walsh and all copies destroyed;
The interim injunction obtained by prop. Walsh in relation to the publication of the Salient edition of 3 October may be discharged and costs will lie where they fall;
The 3 October edition of Salient may be distributed;
All parties look forward to continuation of positive working relationships.
Beyond this statement, none of the parties (prof. Walsh, VOWS and Salient) will be making any further comment to the media about the Court proceedings CHIP 2005 485 2038
Sounds like a TKO for the little guys...
...But there still seems to be some shenanigans going on. The media arrived to film the glorious emancipation, but University authorities had mysteriously vanished and turned their phones off. It seems no one remaining at the university knows where the seized magazines are.
Victoria looks to be delaying the inevitable. Terri Schiavo died with more dignity. (Note, this comparison originally read more lyrically, and less correctly: "Terra Schwab died with more dignity." Ahem.)
UPDATE: And they're in. Salient delivered to overjoyed staff at 17:17, Wellington time.
And here's the statement issued in relation to the settlement:
Joint Statement by Vice-Chancellor and VOWS/Salient
Professor Pat Walsh, Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington ("prop. Walsh"), The Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association("VOWS") and the editorial staff of Salient newspaper("Salient") are pleased to record that the issues between them which led the Vice-Chancellor to obtain an injunction in relation to the publication of certain confidential information have now been resolved.
The parties have agreed that:
The confidential documents leaked to VOWS and Salient will forthwith be returned by VOWS/Salient to prof. Walsh and all copies destroyed;
The interim injunction obtained by prop. Walsh in relation to the publication of the Salient edition of 3 October may be discharged and costs will lie where they fall;
The 3 October edition of Salient may be distributed;
All parties look forward to continuation of positive working relationships.
Beyond this statement, none of the parties (prof. Walsh, VOWS and Salient) will be making any further comment to the media about the Court proceedings CHIP 2005 485 2038
Sunday, October 02, 2005
No binoculars in the ivory tower
Injunctions are the heavy artillery in media wars, barring actual bars. In New Zealand we have no Judith Miller, but a court injunction was served today by a university, Victoria, on Salient, its student magazine. The reason: Confidential documents were leaked to Salient detailing plans to raise fees by a level that would require government approval.
All 6,000 copies of the magazine are now under university lock and key. But the article in question can be read here. It's legal. And it's a case of incompetence from an institute of higher learning.
Rather than being effective in suppressing an issue of significant public interest (for students, questions about student fees rate quite highly), Victoria University has shown that sometimes it's best to grin and bear it. Artillery tend to attract calls of overkill.
Victoria has failed to note the developing dynamic in student media. The story has been published in Critic, and also ran in Nexus, and Chaff. These three publications are also student rags, working together through the ASPA newswire. Author of the disputed article, Keith Ng, flagged this co-operation in this months-old press release, and the little ASPA logos on shared stories mean many students are also aware of this service.
ASPA were not listed in the injunction.
I understand the injunction was served on Salient only late on Sunday evening, by accident. Salient editor Emily Braunstien said the university had intended serving it at 10am on Monday morning. By which point, of course, these three other magazines had already been printed and were being distributed. Salient could be seized, but word was already out.
Blogs and Scoop have also stepped onto the case. Name suppression was bent recently by the internet in the case of Mark Ellis and Brent Todd, but the case of Salient vs. Victoria seems a much more defensible, and important, skirting of press suppression.
The effect of all this, has been unwelcome attention from many news outlets over the injunction, which is all out of proportion to the original story. I wrote similar stories about proposed fee rises in 2003, which died quick, lonely deaths.
And the original purpose of the injunction, to prevent confidential information from being made public, is somewhat pointless if there are already 15,000 copies of it printed and numerous internet hyperlinks. Not to mention keen interest in the court case scheduled for Thursday.
This from Checkpoint, an interview with Victoria Vice-Chancellor Pat Walsh:
UPDATE: More comment from Lyndon Hood at Fightingtalk, arguing the case needs big-media support otherwise a nasty precedent might stand, and Tze Ming Mok at Public Address, who sees a suprising lack of attention-whoring from Salient.
DISCLAIMER: The author worked as deputy editor at Salient in 2003, and probably knows too much.
All 6,000 copies of the magazine are now under university lock and key. But the article in question can be read here. It's legal. And it's a case of incompetence from an institute of higher learning.
Rather than being effective in suppressing an issue of significant public interest (for students, questions about student fees rate quite highly), Victoria University has shown that sometimes it's best to grin and bear it. Artillery tend to attract calls of overkill.
Victoria has failed to note the developing dynamic in student media. The story has been published in Critic, and also ran in Nexus, and Chaff. These three publications are also student rags, working together through the ASPA newswire. Author of the disputed article, Keith Ng, flagged this co-operation in this months-old press release, and the little ASPA logos on shared stories mean many students are also aware of this service.
ASPA were not listed in the injunction.
I understand the injunction was served on Salient only late on Sunday evening, by accident. Salient editor Emily Braunstien said the university had intended serving it at 10am on Monday morning. By which point, of course, these three other magazines had already been printed and were being distributed. Salient could be seized, but word was already out.
Blogs and Scoop have also stepped onto the case. Name suppression was bent recently by the internet in the case of Mark Ellis and Brent Todd, but the case of Salient vs. Victoria seems a much more defensible, and important, skirting of press suppression.
The effect of all this, has been unwelcome attention from many news outlets over the injunction, which is all out of proportion to the original story. I wrote similar stories about proposed fee rises in 2003, which died quick, lonely deaths.
And the original purpose of the injunction, to prevent confidential information from being made public, is somewhat pointless if there are already 15,000 copies of it printed and numerous internet hyperlinks. Not to mention keen interest in the court case scheduled for Thursday.
This from Checkpoint, an interview with Victoria Vice-Chancellor Pat Walsh:
Radio New Zealand: You are aware the information has already been published. Will you be serving further injunctions?Victoria has nothing to gain by continuing court action. Unless, of course, they're after a test case of media and internet freedom where they begin firmly on the back foot.
Pat Walsh: I was only made aware of that two minutes ago by you. I would need to consider the issues and probably make a decision within 12 hours.
RNZ: That might make the whole process of seeking an injunction rather pointless.
Walsh: That's correct. It may do.
UPDATE: More comment from Lyndon Hood at Fightingtalk, arguing the case needs big-media support otherwise a nasty precedent might stand, and Tze Ming Mok at Public Address, who sees a suprising lack of attention-whoring from Salient.
DISCLAIMER: The author worked as deputy editor at Salient in 2003, and probably knows too much.
Just in case
After correspondence with Victoria University, this post has been voluntarily, and temporarily, removed. This campaign is ongoing, pending further developments. Either it'll blow over, or it'll blow up. The ball is in Victoria's court...
UPDATE: I hear good news might be on the way. A settlement has been reached and Salient is due for release. Sounds like a TKO for the little guys...
If you're after the Critic version of the article: it is here.
The original, liberated version of the Salient's take will appear here (and I imagine elsewhere), ASAP.
UPDATE: I hear good news might be on the way. A settlement has been reached and Salient is due for release. Sounds like a TKO for the little guys...
If you're after the Critic version of the article: it is here.
The original, liberated version of the Salient's take will appear here (and I imagine elsewhere), ASAP.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Verbal fisticuffs and communal crucifixion
Two things;
My fabulous New Zealand publication (freelance cheques, yes please!) the New Zealand Listener has run my George Galloway vs Christopher Hitchens piece. A cracking "debate" marred only by no engagement with the actual issue. Magnificent example of spectacle over substance. Enjoy.
Learning to respect the old school, and not take advice like "this is a class where you can take risk" at face value. A piece I wrote for the legendary (83 and counting) Judith Crist. She asked for a building profile, so I personified my School and painted it rather unflatteringly as a vain tart. It got ripped to shreds in public, called "repulsive", and "weak". Written comments (at the end) weren't any better. That piece is here.
Oh well, back to the drawing board.
If anyone actually reads this, could they drop me an email? matt_nippert@yahoo.com Tah.
My fabulous New Zealand publication (freelance cheques, yes please!) the New Zealand Listener has run my George Galloway vs Christopher Hitchens piece. A cracking "debate" marred only by no engagement with the actual issue. Magnificent example of spectacle over substance. Enjoy.
Learning to respect the old school, and not take advice like "this is a class where you can take risk" at face value. A piece I wrote for the legendary (83 and counting) Judith Crist. She asked for a building profile, so I personified my School and painted it rather unflatteringly as a vain tart. It got ripped to shreds in public, called "repulsive", and "weak". Written comments (at the end) weren't any better. That piece is here.
Oh well, back to the drawing board.
If anyone actually reads this, could they drop me an email? matt_nippert@yahoo.com Tah.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
First I take Manhattan
My first column is out. Highlights:
As I leave the overnight red-eye flight to head into the city that never sleeps, I feel like a zombie. The temperature is 30˚ and humid, and my first-floor apartment, with its barred window overlooking rusty fire-escapes, lacks air-conditioning. First, I get a fan. Then I buy cold beer.
An Egyptian-born deli owner on Broadway greets me at five past midnight with a broken smile that flashes gold. "Ah, very good choice!" he says, as I plonk a six-pack onto the counter. Remembering a Monty Python line that's always worked wonders in New Zealand, I quip: "I'm buying foreign, because I heard all American beer is like f---ing close to water!"
His smile remains, but the eyes are no longer friendly. The bottles in question are Kronenberg 1664. The label reads: "Bi̬re Рbottled in France." First, I smear his adopted country's beer, and then I take the piss.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Matt RW1 - "Dog-gone, dedicated"
Dog-gone, dedicated
Sept. 9, 2005
By Matt Nippert
NEW YORK - While Sirius may be enjoying the big dog house in the sky, countless other canines can now enjoy a park on terra firma after Battery Park City dedicated a dog run to the famous yellow Labrador on Thursday.
The Port Authority police dog was lost in the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks when his handler, Sergeant David Lim, spent time rescuing people instead of letting his partner out of his basement cage.
The Sirius Dog Run, at the corner at the corner of Liberty St. and South End Ave., is now open to two and four-legged members of the public.
Sirius and Lim had been together for one-and-a-half years, ever since they graduated from dog-handling school together. “It usually takes three and a half months to complete the course, depending on how smart the dog is,” said Lim.
And how smart was Sirius?
“Ask any handler, and they’ll give you the same answer: ‘My dog is the smartest,’” Said Lim.
His wife, Diane Lim, insists on some objectivity. “He was a big, dumb, dog. He walked into a fire hydrant the first day we got him. He had his head down, sniffing the ground, and then - Bam! - but he could find bombs.”
Both Lim, then a K-9 officer, and Sirius, worked at the World Trade Center on explosives-detection duty. The Port Authority has employed canine explosive teams since the 1993 bombing.
Kenneth J. Ringler Jr, executive director of the Port Authority, heaped praise on both Mr. Lim and his best friend. “Sirius was really on the front line in protecting us against terrible acts,” Ringler said.
Lim was, according to Ringler, “Truly a hero on that day. He stayed in that building and got people out – I know colleagues he saved – while his partner was still in his cage.”
Sirius has been replaced now, by a black Labrador named Sprig. But memories of their 9-11 dog remain, and Diane Lim often gets their names confused.
“It’s so hard, so much talking about Sirius,” she said.
Mr. and Mrs. Lim, Long Island residents and married for 19 years, will remember Sirius as the dog that didn’t quite know his own size.
“At home he was just a big, 100 pound teddy bear. He would jump up into your lap and crush you because he thought he was a lap-dog,” said Mr. Lim.
“Or a little Pekinese,” added his wife.
The dog run, located in Monsignor Kowsky Plaza, isn’t large, but is welcomed by Battery Park residents. “The run is great, not just for dog-owners, but also the temporarily dog-deprived,” said Jeff Galloway, co-president of the Battery Park City dog association.
And Mrs. Lim said that the run would get used by Sprig. “If David is at the World Trade Center and has Sirius - I mean Sprig - Jeeze, I did it again...”
The dedication ceremony was attended by four flag-bearers, and a 10-strong pipe-band, from the Port Authority Police. The band played “God Bless America” marching in, and “America” marching out. Dressed in kilts and tassels, one piper was later overheard saying, “I can’t believe I got dressed up like this for a dog.”
Then there’s the national anthem, the concluding reverie disrupted by the yapping of seven nearby Chihuahua’s packed into a pram. One wears a sombrero, another a cowboy hat, and yet another sports a frilly green collar.
The pack of small dogs belongs to Charles Johnston, who wears an vivid-orange Hawaiian shirt and has a stuffed toy tiger stashed in the bottom compartment of his pram.
Johnston, 73, and suffering from early-stage Parkinson’s disease, said he was there to sell one of his puppies, Susie Q.
He’s not a dog-breeder by choice. “They just happen to me!” he said. His other three Chihuahua’s have been left at home; two are pregnant, he says, and the third, Brandy, is an alcoholic.
“By the time I’ve turned around and asked my wife whether there’s enough for a second whiskey sour, Brandy’s swiped the first. I can’t bring her out in public.”
Johnston said small dogs were adorable, but also therapy.
“Every day is an adventure. It causes someone who might need psychiatric help to become reborn.”
But finally, after speeches and a plaque-unveiling, refreshments befitting a police K-9 memorial were served: coffee, donuts and dog biscuits.
Sept. 9, 2005
By Matt Nippert
NEW YORK - While Sirius may be enjoying the big dog house in the sky, countless other canines can now enjoy a park on terra firma after Battery Park City dedicated a dog run to the famous yellow Labrador on Thursday.
The Port Authority police dog was lost in the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks when his handler, Sergeant David Lim, spent time rescuing people instead of letting his partner out of his basement cage.
The Sirius Dog Run, at the corner at the corner of Liberty St. and South End Ave., is now open to two and four-legged members of the public.
Sirius and Lim had been together for one-and-a-half years, ever since they graduated from dog-handling school together. “It usually takes three and a half months to complete the course, depending on how smart the dog is,” said Lim.
And how smart was Sirius?
“Ask any handler, and they’ll give you the same answer: ‘My dog is the smartest,’” Said Lim.
His wife, Diane Lim, insists on some objectivity. “He was a big, dumb, dog. He walked into a fire hydrant the first day we got him. He had his head down, sniffing the ground, and then - Bam! - but he could find bombs.”
Both Lim, then a K-9 officer, and Sirius, worked at the World Trade Center on explosives-detection duty. The Port Authority has employed canine explosive teams since the 1993 bombing.
Kenneth J. Ringler Jr, executive director of the Port Authority, heaped praise on both Mr. Lim and his best friend. “Sirius was really on the front line in protecting us against terrible acts,” Ringler said.
Lim was, according to Ringler, “Truly a hero on that day. He stayed in that building and got people out – I know colleagues he saved – while his partner was still in his cage.”
Sirius has been replaced now, by a black Labrador named Sprig. But memories of their 9-11 dog remain, and Diane Lim often gets their names confused.
“It’s so hard, so much talking about Sirius,” she said.
Mr. and Mrs. Lim, Long Island residents and married for 19 years, will remember Sirius as the dog that didn’t quite know his own size.
“At home he was just a big, 100 pound teddy bear. He would jump up into your lap and crush you because he thought he was a lap-dog,” said Mr. Lim.
“Or a little Pekinese,” added his wife.
The dog run, located in Monsignor Kowsky Plaza, isn’t large, but is welcomed by Battery Park residents. “The run is great, not just for dog-owners, but also the temporarily dog-deprived,” said Jeff Galloway, co-president of the Battery Park City dog association.
And Mrs. Lim said that the run would get used by Sprig. “If David is at the World Trade Center and has Sirius - I mean Sprig - Jeeze, I did it again...”
The dedication ceremony was attended by four flag-bearers, and a 10-strong pipe-band, from the Port Authority Police. The band played “God Bless America” marching in, and “America” marching out. Dressed in kilts and tassels, one piper was later overheard saying, “I can’t believe I got dressed up like this for a dog.”
Then there’s the national anthem, the concluding reverie disrupted by the yapping of seven nearby Chihuahua’s packed into a pram. One wears a sombrero, another a cowboy hat, and yet another sports a frilly green collar.
The pack of small dogs belongs to Charles Johnston, who wears an vivid-orange Hawaiian shirt and has a stuffed toy tiger stashed in the bottom compartment of his pram.
Johnston, 73, and suffering from early-stage Parkinson’s disease, said he was there to sell one of his puppies, Susie Q.
He’s not a dog-breeder by choice. “They just happen to me!” he said. His other three Chihuahua’s have been left at home; two are pregnant, he says, and the third, Brandy, is an alcoholic.
“By the time I’ve turned around and asked my wife whether there’s enough for a second whiskey sour, Brandy’s swiped the first. I can’t bring her out in public.”
Johnston said small dogs were adorable, but also therapy.
“Every day is an adventure. It causes someone who might need psychiatric help to become reborn.”
But finally, after speeches and a plaque-unveiling, refreshments befitting a police K-9 memorial were served: coffee, donuts and dog biscuits.
World famous in New Zealand
On journalism:
"You can't teach talent, which you need a modicum of, but you can teach accuracy, discipline, and the ability to marshal enormous amounts of research material and start shitting out bite-sized chunks. The talent to be able to spot, and elicit, that "money" quote.
"The stuff I really love is indirect quotes, where the journalist has involved himself so much in the issue that he can write it the whole way through and every so often he'll have a half-sentence quote, just something that sounds really fucking cool, something really colourful.
"He'll just tell the story, as opposed to the daily news style, where you have A saying this and B saying this. This is the journalist saying 'I know this subject and this is the way I see it'. If they're good, they'll be able to get across the balance of the story and a few of the nuances inside the issue, and they won't be a slave to transcribing. I hate that shit."
From a profile of none other than myself in my old student magazine Salient, that came out a couple of weeks ago.
Yes, my head grows with each passing moment.
"You can't teach talent, which you need a modicum of, but you can teach accuracy, discipline, and the ability to marshal enormous amounts of research material and start shitting out bite-sized chunks. The talent to be able to spot, and elicit, that "money" quote.
"The stuff I really love is indirect quotes, where the journalist has involved himself so much in the issue that he can write it the whole way through and every so often he'll have a half-sentence quote, just something that sounds really fucking cool, something really colourful.
"He'll just tell the story, as opposed to the daily news style, where you have A saying this and B saying this. This is the journalist saying 'I know this subject and this is the way I see it'. If they're good, they'll be able to get across the balance of the story and a few of the nuances inside the issue, and they won't be a slave to transcribing. I hate that shit."
From a profile of none other than myself in my old student magazine Salient, that came out a couple of weeks ago.
Yes, my head grows with each passing moment.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Matt - RW1 "Confusion on the orange line"
Confusion on the orange line
By Matt Nippert
Aug. 19, 2005
NEW YORK - If passengerss on the B-train are anything to go by, Homeland Security might want to consult legendary 1930s New York Times columnist Simeon Strunksy who wrote: "People who want to understand democracy should spend less time in the library with Aristotle and more time on the buses and in the subway." Commuters riding the orange subway line, in a city under constant orange alert, just don't get the terror warning system.
"I don't worry whether it's orange, or brown, or whatever. Because I don't understand it, it doesn't mean anything to me," said Jeanette Williams, a 42 year-old electrician and New Jersey resident. She waves her hand dismissively at the constant orange klaxon, "I just don't get it."
Williams, commuting home after completing a 12-hour shift renovating Walton High School looks like a tough woman. Braids tied beneath a black bandana, and respectively a gold and silver chain on her left and right wrists, she said when the media is flooded with warnings, the result is often panic, not alertness. "Everyone is fuckin' scared, doesn't want to go to work, and for what?" Williams said.
A sample of six commuters riding the B-train to the Bronx were unanimous in being unable to tell this reporter what this alert level meant. And, apart from patience with bag searches - on par with the Yankees in terms of subway conversation-kindlers - they didn't know what the color orange encouraged them to do.
Chris Young, a 37 year-old actor, wearing a baseball cap and red-and-white striped shirt, said while he does take note of the constant warnings, he's not sure of what to do about them. "It is making me a little hesitant; it's always in the back of my mind. I know it means we're supposed to be on an elevated level, but that really means nothing to me," said Young, a resident of Park Slope, Brooklyn.
The advisory system unveiled to great fanfare by Tom Ridge in 2002 stretches from green "low risk", through blue "guarded", yellow "elevated", orange "high", and finally to red "severe". According to the department's website, orange alert requires, in addition to patience and understanding during bag-searches, people to "exercise caution" when traveling and review family emergency plans.
Al Carter, 68 and retired of Harlem, was catching the subway north to pick up a doctor's prescription. He thought orange was "The highest alert level." Not that this dire warning, or in light of London, means he's changed his habits. Ambling along the platform in a brown Black Bear Golf Club polo shirt and black peaked cap, he said: "I just keep going where I have to go, and pray that it doesn't happen again."
Terror prevention activities, like searches, should be constant, Williams said, not limited to high-profile color-coded warnings. "You go to work and there's this big ol' warning. It should be like it every day."
And even the most visible aspect of the alert status, bag-searches by the Transit Police, seems to occur more often in the Bronx than downtown, Williams said. "Maybe they're richer, maybe they pay more for their stuff, maybe there's a lot of stuff going on uptown, I don't know," she said.
Williams, who normally takes a car to work, said she was only on the subway because her car was under repair. "Well, I'm glad I'm driving, because you don't get any of this freakiness," she said.
But Jason Knight, a 42 year-old writer from South Jamaica, Queens, believes the city is facing problems closer to hand than transnational terror. Wearing black slacks, a well-cut black business suit jacket, and a white T-shirt for contrast, Knight was a big fan of the old 42nd Street. "The cinemas, the porn - it was great," he said.
Surrounded by four plastic bags filled with papers and books, he points to the clean-up of the red-light district as a symptom of New York City losing its exciting edge. Forget Osama bin Laden, Knight reckons former Mayor Rudolf Guliani deserves the title of man most destructive to the Big Apple. Knight said, "He turned it from Paradise to Boresville."
By Matt Nippert
Aug. 19, 2005
NEW YORK - If passengerss on the B-train are anything to go by, Homeland Security might want to consult legendary 1930s New York Times columnist Simeon Strunksy who wrote: "People who want to understand democracy should spend less time in the library with Aristotle and more time on the buses and in the subway." Commuters riding the orange subway line, in a city under constant orange alert, just don't get the terror warning system.
"I don't worry whether it's orange, or brown, or whatever. Because I don't understand it, it doesn't mean anything to me," said Jeanette Williams, a 42 year-old electrician and New Jersey resident. She waves her hand dismissively at the constant orange klaxon, "I just don't get it."
Williams, commuting home after completing a 12-hour shift renovating Walton High School looks like a tough woman. Braids tied beneath a black bandana, and respectively a gold and silver chain on her left and right wrists, she said when the media is flooded with warnings, the result is often panic, not alertness. "Everyone is fuckin' scared, doesn't want to go to work, and for what?" Williams said.
A sample of six commuters riding the B-train to the Bronx were unanimous in being unable to tell this reporter what this alert level meant. And, apart from patience with bag searches - on par with the Yankees in terms of subway conversation-kindlers - they didn't know what the color orange encouraged them to do.
Chris Young, a 37 year-old actor, wearing a baseball cap and red-and-white striped shirt, said while he does take note of the constant warnings, he's not sure of what to do about them. "It is making me a little hesitant; it's always in the back of my mind. I know it means we're supposed to be on an elevated level, but that really means nothing to me," said Young, a resident of Park Slope, Brooklyn.
The advisory system unveiled to great fanfare by Tom Ridge in 2002 stretches from green "low risk", through blue "guarded", yellow "elevated", orange "high", and finally to red "severe". According to the department's website, orange alert requires, in addition to patience and understanding during bag-searches, people to "exercise caution" when traveling and review family emergency plans.
Al Carter, 68 and retired of Harlem, was catching the subway north to pick up a doctor's prescription. He thought orange was "The highest alert level." Not that this dire warning, or in light of London, means he's changed his habits. Ambling along the platform in a brown Black Bear Golf Club polo shirt and black peaked cap, he said: "I just keep going where I have to go, and pray that it doesn't happen again."
Terror prevention activities, like searches, should be constant, Williams said, not limited to high-profile color-coded warnings. "You go to work and there's this big ol' warning. It should be like it every day."
And even the most visible aspect of the alert status, bag-searches by the Transit Police, seems to occur more often in the Bronx than downtown, Williams said. "Maybe they're richer, maybe they pay more for their stuff, maybe there's a lot of stuff going on uptown, I don't know," she said.
Williams, who normally takes a car to work, said she was only on the subway because her car was under repair. "Well, I'm glad I'm driving, because you don't get any of this freakiness," she said.
But Jason Knight, a 42 year-old writer from South Jamaica, Queens, believes the city is facing problems closer to hand than transnational terror. Wearing black slacks, a well-cut black business suit jacket, and a white T-shirt for contrast, Knight was a big fan of the old 42nd Street. "The cinemas, the porn - it was great," he said.
Surrounded by four plastic bags filled with papers and books, he points to the clean-up of the red-light district as a symptom of New York City losing its exciting edge. Forget Osama bin Laden, Knight reckons former Mayor Rudolf Guliani deserves the title of man most destructive to the Big Apple. Knight said, "He turned it from Paradise to Boresville."
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